boiler ripoff

Pep

British Gas advised to change our old and inefficient but perfectly working boiler to a new more efficient one so we could SAVE a massive £150 a year.
And the advise was FREE, how generous
Total cost for new boiler £4800.

Thieves :evil:

Ben6899

It'll pay for itself within 32 years. What's the problem?

rolf_f

Ben6899 wrote:

It'll pay for itself within 32 years. What's the problem?

That the new, pointlessly over-complex one will be doing well to last five years.....

sfichele

When we did our house up we had new central heating installed - new boiler + 6 radiators for £2200.
British gas are a massive rip off!

Tom Butcher

I don't care how much they save per year if I had a good old fashioned type boiler I'd keep it - agree with the above post that modern boilers are far too temperamental and whatever savings you make on fuel bills you lose on repairs and having to replace it.

inkyfingers

Get an elternative quote from your local gas safe company, unless you have a massive house that sounds ridiculously expensive.

Whilst I agree with getting as much life out of something as possible there comes a point where it will be easier and cheaper to replace your boiler, depending on how old it is. When I bought my first house in 2003 I did it all up but to save money I didn't upgrade the ancient boiler, which turned out to be a big mistake as I spent a load fixing it a few times before eventually coming to my senses and buying a new one. If you buy a decent make of boiler and you get in installed by a good engineer and service it regularly then you shouldn't have any problems, and even if you do they should be under warranty.

Ben6899

Rolf F wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

It'll pay for itself within 32 years. What's the problem?

That the new, pointlessly over-complex one will be doing well to last five years.....

It was just me in pre-coffee flippancy mode. I agree, it's a rip off and I would keep the current boiler.

CiB

inkyfingers wrote:

Get an elternative quote from your local gas safe company, unless you have a massive house that sounds ridiculously expensive.

Whilst I agree with getting as much life out of something as possible there comes a point where it will be easier and cheaper to replace your boiler, depending on how old it is. When I bought my first house in 2003 I did it all up but to save money I didn't upgrade the ancient boiler, which turned out to be a big mistake as I spent a load fixing it a few times before eventually coming to my senses and buying a new one. If you buy a decent make of boiler and you get in installed by a good engineer and service it regularly then you shouldn't have any problems, and even if you do they should be under warranty.

You wanna be careful these days when swapping out your old boiler for a newer fresher model. You can't be sure the newer one will keep performing like the old trusty reliable one did and she'll take you to the cleaners financially when the divorce comes through. Stick with the old one, even if it does blow hot & cold occasionally.

Tom Butcher

That's certainly my experience - and remember listening to a show on the radio (it's was painfully relevant at the time as we had no hot water or heating and nobody could seem to work out how to fix the thing) where a number of plumbers phoned in and said pretty much the same thing - they don't make them like they used to !

Le Commentateur

A cautioanry tale from the OP, showing why it is important to shop around and get comparative quotes for both the boiler and labour before going ahead.

I needed a new boiler last year, as the very old one was clapped out and as well as local companies I checked out British Gas, but as soon as they said they wouldn't do take on the work unless I switched over to a British Gas account, they were off my list.

BrianTrousers

British Gas are thieving g*psies and it beggars me how they get away with it. Just ask your local plumber for a quote if you ever need a new boiler. Or go online, it doesn't take long to find out what they actually cost.

My father-in-law got done by them to the tune of £4k, this despite me telling him not to use them and how much it should have cost really. I'm a construction estimator so I did wonder what he thinks I do all day.

Rudd

4800 is exactly what british gas quoted us.........we got a local guy to do the same work plus a number of extra bits and bots for less than 3000. very happy with the results.

GiantMike

I had a friendly chat with a plumber and agreed to be his 'mate' for the day doing some of the unskilled labouring. I got a great big boiler fitted with new rad valves on 10 radiators for £1600, and I now think I could fit one myself!

Stiff_Orange

My local plumber ripped out the old back boiler (and arranged disposal) , replaced it with a top of the range combi boiler which was moved to a new location, new radiators fitted throughout, new gas supply pipes installed for boiler, gas fire and cooker and all internal heating pipework replaced. £3200 the lot.

upperoilcan

The boiler in the flat i rent out was condemned 2 weeks ago,all fixed now with a brand spanking Bosch Worcester,all in and working for £2600:00 :shock:

graeme_s-2

Ok then, as this is already starting to sound like the "what's the fastest you've ever gone on the flat" threads...

My local plumber rebuilt my entire house, gave my wife a boob job and cleaned my commuting bike for £7.50

GiantMike

Graeme_S wrote:

My local plumber rebuilt my entire house, gave my wife a boob job and cleaned my commuting bike for £7.50

You have a clean commuter bike? You're in the wrong forum mate.








Weirdo!

twistedmetal

Best to go with a plumber you know or someone you trust knows and rates IMHO. I did that and got a top notch A rated boiler (a ferroli which is highly rated in the trade I believe) with 8 thermostat rads and a stat unit remote type you can put anywhere and move around. It was about £3700 IIRC. New pipes including the higher bore newer standard gas feeder pipes. My house was not an easy installation neither on account of solid ground floors and hard to reach areas. Plus the long feed gas pipes to get to the boiler location too.

I know it sounds like a how fast I can go on flats thread but I think the above is a cracking system for the price and I do reckon I could have got something adequate for less but he put top notch kit in and I think that counts more than saving a few hundred quid here or there. I now have a house that takes 10 minutes to heat up once I turn the heating on. Not bad for high ceilinged, Victorian house.

The other thing is I know the plumber through family members he has worked for and that counts for a good contact. The boiler has a 5 year guarantee and he rates it so highly that he has included the servicing in with that price for the five years. In fact he told me that if it went wrong in those 5 years he would fix it and sort out the warranty claim himself so I had no charges or worries about payment at all. ALso told me he had never had a Ferrioli go wrong on him in all the years he'd used them.

Anyway my point is a small local plumber gives the price and service a BG service can't. PLus I have heard a lot of bad things about BG, their selling of unnecesarily over specced systems, their over pricing and the poor quality of the boilers used. I heard that they get them really cheap due to bulk and then charge over the odds. Not sure if true but I think there are enough other reasons to avoid BG.

cornerblock

GiantMike wrote:

I had a friendly chat with a plumber and agreed to be his 'mate' for the day doing some of the unskilled labouring. I got a great big boiler fitted with new rad valves on 10 radiators for £1600, and I now think I could fit one myself!

Look forward to seeing you on Rogue Traders!

de_sisti

Graeme_S wrote:

Ok then, as this is already starting to sound like the "what's the fastest you've ever gone on the flat" threads...

My local plumber wrecked my entire house, gave my wife a blow job and cleaned off with my commuting bike
and had the cheek to ask me for £7.50

rhext

We've just had a 12-year old combi replaced with a brand new condensing boiler. I now have a warm house and I wouldn't take the old one back if you paid me!

Not that fussed about reliability, as I have a service care contract with British Gas. They did, however, offer me a £5 per month discount when I informed them that we had a new boiler fitted (and not fitted by them, I should point out, so maybe 'Thieves' is overstating it a bit). And the manufacturers are confident enough to offer a 5 year guarantee, so I suspect the reliability is getting better.

MichaelW

Lots of condesning boilers stopped working during last winter's freeze-up because the condensed water froze and blocked the drainage pipe. According to some bloke on a video, best practice is to use an over-sized plastic pipe, fully lagged, draining vertically down.

Bozman

I thought about replacing my boiler at my old house after a fault(first in 20yrs), the heating engineer told me to keep it - "i've replaced 2 of the 3 things that can go faulty, it'll probably still last 4 times longer than a new boiler!"
I moved and had a boiler installed at the new house, 36 mths later and it's failed twice!!
Get quotes from recommended heating engineers and avoid the Gas Board purely on price.

DIESELDOG

I've got an old boiler...

Oh no, hang on, that's me. Damn damn damn...

Love n hugs

DD

sufferingpete

British Gas serviced our boiler and left it NOT WORKING.

6 visits later they managed to get it working.

I watched one of there skilled fitters slowly and awkwardly remove a cross head screw with a flat balded screwdriver when he had the correct tool to hand in his tool box.

I then gave up on them. They tried using the direct debit after writing to them - good job i had already cancelled it.

sheffsimon

De Sisti wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Ok then, as this is already starting to sound like the "what's the fastest you've ever gone on the flat" threads...

My local plumber wrecked my entire house, gave my wife a blow job and cleaned off with my commuting bike
and had the cheek to ask me for £7.50

Hows that work then?